Well yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag. I awoke at 6 a.m. to take the dog to shore before the Chris Parker weather forecast as we hoped for an early start. The forecast sounded favorable so by 7 a.m. we decided to be show off’s and sail off the anchor. All was going well until I told Coleen to follow our GPS trail and it would lead us out of the anchorage, while I secured the anchor to the bow roller. I had almost finished when I looked up to see that we were speeding to shore. I quickly ran back to the helm and saw we were going 6.5 knots straight to land only a short distance away. I quickly turned the boat, while Coleen was yelling she was following the path. Yes, well, I didn’t mean the path that took us back to the first anchorage we’d tried. I meant the one that led out of the channel. Crisis averted we headed out through the coral patches and into Exuma Sound. We were headed south toward Salt Pond for the Long Island Regatta. I was soon putting a reef in the main. We plunged along close hauled, pounding into the choppy waves for about an hour before taking another vote, turning around and heading towards Conception Island. We thought it would be a more pleasant sail. It was for the first few hours. We were sailing rather pleasantly making 6 knots with 4 foot seas on the beam, with one reef and a partially furled jib. The wind vane was doing the steering and I was just sitting back and enjoying it all. The sea was a lovely blue, with the white caps on the 4 foot waves, often looking more turquoise than white. Coleen managed to do school lessons for the first couple of hours, but then the motion got too much for her to be inside, so she came outside to read.

At some point I noticed that the anchor was not well secured. I had to crawl up forward, being the chicken I am, and take care of it while the boat was plunging forward. Surprisingly I didn’t get too wet and was soon back in the mostly dry cockpit. Despite our new weather cloths we were taking a bit of spray in the cockpit now and then. One particularly large wave splashed in and gave Prince quite the surprise as he as suddenly wet. I even managed to cook some pasta for lunch. The only downside in this whole thing is that we could not lay our course to Conception. We actually passed the entrance to the anchorage by 6 miles with plans to be able to tack back. Well we tacked, but due to a setting current, we were headed back the same way we’d started. I was none to happy at this point as we were 6 hours into our 15 mile sail, still had 9 miles to go and we couldn’t head that way! Now what to do! We considered just heading back to Long Island, or sailing downwind to Cat Island arriving well after dark, but once again being the good sailor I am, I decided it was time to use the iron jenny. I reasoned that I had paid 10K for that thing I might as well use it. So we motor sailed our way the last 9 miles, navigating our way through the coral patches and setting anchor at 5:30 p.m.

I was super tired, but soon we had the boat tidied up and I was sitting on the foredeck gazing on a miles long white sand beach sprinkled with palm trees while sipping a pina colada. I guess it was worth the effort!

We plan to be here a few days as there is a lot to see. Uninhabited Conception Island is a Bahamas National Park. All the wildlife and marine life is protected. There are trails to hike, a long creek to explore by dinghy that is supposed to be filled with sea turtles and baby fish, countless reefs to snorkel, and maybe even a little time relaxing on the beach. It should be fun!

Just a heads up to my friends and family, there is no internet access here other than the sat phone. So I can’t read e-mail or Facebook. If you need me please call the sat phone.